Easy Ways to Improve Your Posture (And One More Important Thing!)

10 Easy Ways to Improve Your Posture (And One More Important Thing!)

Correct posture ensures good health, gives you confidence, and helps you look slimmer. However, despite all these benefits, most of us keep stooping, especially when sitting in front of the computer.

We at Bright Side would like to show you 10 simple exercises and tricks that will help make your back straight and keep it that way.

1. The greeting

Put your hands behind your back, and connect your palms as shown in the picture above. It’s important to make a straight line of your arms from one elbow to the other. Your shoulder blades should move to each other. Hold this position for 10 seconds.

2. The lock

Put one arm behind your back. Raise the other one, and put it near the shoulder blades bent at the elbow. Clench your hands in a lock, and pull your upper arm’s elbow up. Change hands after 5 seconds.

3. Twists

Without moving your lower body, put your hands behind your head and turn your upper torso to the left so that your shoulders are at a straight angle with the back of the chair. Hold this position for 5 seconds, and turn right.

4. Bends

Sit at the edge of a chair, and put your arms behind your head. Bend at the spine, and look at the ceiling. Slowly pull your head backward, still looking up, until you touch the back of the chair.

5. The stand

Stand up as shown in the picture. Make sure you feel the wall with both of your shoulder blades, buttocks, and calves. Strain your abs, and breathe deeply in and out several times.

6. The fall

This exercise continues the previous one. While still standing at the wall, spread your arms to the sides and slowly tilt forward without bending your knees. Hold this position for 10 seconds.

1. Holding your abs

The posture is kept by your back and abdominal muscles in equal measure. When you keep your abs strained, your back straightens by itself. A broad belt or a skirt or pants with a high waist will help keep your abdominal muscles in the correct tone.

2. A special pose

Sit on the edge of a chair, stuff one leg under the chair as far as you can, and stretch the other one. This pose will help you sit straight in order to keep your balance. Sit in this position after doing any exercise.

3. Back weight

When you work at a computer, hang something on your back to pull you back, making you keep your spine straight. A simple clothes hanger will do perfectly.

4. Chest weight

When doing house chores, hang a weighted backpack onto your front. Your body will attempt to cope with the weight and pull your shoulders back for balance.

Lastly, all these recommendations are of a short-term variety: they have an almost immediate effect that doesn’t hold for long. For best results, do the exercises above regularly, adding other ones you find.

You should also remember:

Your posture depends not only on your muscles but on the condition of your teeth as well — including the occlusion. Exercises may be insufficient to get rid of a stoop. Pay attention to your dental occlusion, and consult your dentist to solve the problem under professional monitoring.

Illustrated by Alena Tsarkova, Leonid Khan for BrightSide.me 
Based on materials from dailyhealthpost, smashingtops, huffingtonpost

Absolutely Invaluable Kitchen Hacks Few People Know Of

21 Absolutely Invaluable Kitchen Hacks Few People Know Of

Here at Bright Side, we’ve gathered together some life hacks for preparing food, cleaning and organizing your cooking space. Some of them you may have never suspected.

Cooking Hacks

1. How to remove seeds from vegetables quickly

© boilbroil  

To quickly remove seeds from pumpkins or zucchinis, use an ice-cream scoop. Its sharp edge easily scrapes out seeds from veggies. You can also use it to make a thinly sliced salad.

2. How to remove excess fat from cooked food.

© naplesillustrated  

If a dish you’ve cooked turns out to be unexpectedly rich, you can easily remove excess fat using a couple of ice cubes and a paper towel. Wrap the ice in the towel and wipe it over the top of the food. The ice will act as a magnet, drawing floating fat towards it to congeal on the tissue.

3. Use film wrap like a professional chef

© blogspot  

Does your plastic wrap stretch unevenly and rip? Keep it in the fridge, like professional chefs do. Cold food wrap behaves better, sticking and tearing less, leading to less of that familiar feeling of exasperation.

4. Peel Citrus Fruits Easily

© forwallpaper  

Is peeling oranges, lemons or satsumas too much of a fath? Don’t want to ruin your manicure digging into that hard, thick rind? Stick them in the microwave for 20 seconds and it becomes much easier to separate these fruits from their wrappings.

5. Make peeling boiled eggs easier

© tesco  

Add soda or vinegar to the water you boil the eggs in. These substances get inside the shells and make it easier to peel them off.

6. How to squeeze more juice out of your citrus fruits

© liberty  

To squeeze the last drops out of a lemon, first cool the fruit in the fridge, and then zap it in the microwave for 15-20 seconds.

7. How to grate soft cheese with less mess

© healtheо  

Bung it in the freezer for half an hour before grating. The cheese hardens, and doesn’t stick to the grater. It’s easier to sprinkle it too.

8. How to cut onions without tears

© jjrecepty  

The freezer will help you here too. Put the onions in for 30 minutes before chopping them. Bear in mind that it’s only worth doing this if you plan to cook the onions; don’t subject them to this treatment if you want to make a salad with them or they’ll lose their crunch.

9. The smart way to boil pasta

© melissasloveoffood  

If you don’t want the pot to boil over while you’re not watching it, put a wooden spoon or stirrer over the top. The wood will stop the foam from going over the edge.

10. How to roast a whole chicken

© kalaeva  

When your roast a chicken (or other bird) whole, lay it on its breast. This is because the breast contains most of the meat; the closest it is to the source of heat, the quicker it will cook through.

11. Parchment paper for cupcakes

© barefeetinthekitchen  

If you don’t have special molds for cupcakes, use parchment paper instead. This method has the added benefit of producing non-standard cupcakes, which look much more interesting.

12. The right way to warm up baked items

© ilcento  

When warming up pizza or other baked items in the microwave, put a cup of water in alongside it. The moisture will stop the pastry from drying out too much and preserve crunchy crusts.

13. Making perfect basted eggs

© gracelaced.com  

Break the eggs into a pan as if you’re going to fry them, but instead of vegetable oiladd some water and then put the pan on the heater. As a result, you’ll get the perfect eggs with liquid yolk.

Storage Hacks

1. How to keep cooking herbs

© brusselsfoodfriends  

If you freeze herbs in an ice-cube tray, their vitamin content is preserved. Try freezing them in water or olive oil.

2. The right way to store shelled nuts

© poleznayagazeta  

Freeze shelled nuts to preserve their nutritional properties, taste and aroma. Pack them into sealed containers before placing them into the freezer. It isn’t worth roasting the kernels first, or they’ll be no good for anything. The nuts must be raw and unprocessed. Nuts kept this way won’t acquire the bitter aftertaste of shelled nuts which have been hanging around at room temperature for a while.

Cleaning Hacks

The right way to clean a cast iron frying pan

© smud  

To stop a cast iron frying pan from rusting over time, avoid washing it using regular dishwashing liquid. Use table salt instead. This method will also rid the pan of persistent odors from spices used during cooking.

2. How to rid your hands of unpleasant odors

© lifehacker  

To remove stubborn garlic or onion oders from your hands use table salt or lemon. Just rub them into your hands and rinse with water.

3. How to return metal kitchenware to its previous shine

© teapotandkettle  

To restore sheen to stainless steel kitchenware, wash it in a mixture of vinegar and water. If there are no metal parts a better effect can be achieved by soaking overnight in the same mixture.

4. Restoring wooden spoons to life

© vignettedesign  

Over time wooden spoons and spatulas lose their looks and acquire an unpleasant odor. It would seem that the only thing to do is to chuck them out. However, if you are loath to part with your favorite kitchen helper, there is a way out. Boil the wooden spoons in plain water and leave them to dry in the sun. This will remove unpleasant odors and give them a new lease of life.

5. The right way to clean wooden chopping boards

© liveinternet  

To remove odors and food residues from wooden chopping boards rub them with coarse grain salt and leave for 10-15 minutes. Then wipe with half a lemon and dry. This procedure is guaranteed to get rid of unpleasant smells.

7. How to keep your recipes clean

© youtube  

When we cook, we often use a recipe book or our own notes. It can be a bit difficult to put the book on the worktop open on the right page without getting it splashed and stained. To protect cook books from this fate, use a regular trouser hanger to keep the book open on the page you need and suspend it over the work surface, where it’ll be quite safe.

Preview photo credit gracelaced.com 
Based on materials from greatist